Life

Henning and Wellington Wire to Wire Wins at Timberman

Athletes were greeted to sunny skies and temperatures hovering around 70 F this morning as the athletes entered the water in Lake Winnipesaukee at Ironman 70.3 Timberman. Rasmus Henning and Chrissie Wellington dominated the race in New Hampshire today. (Picture: Wellington winning last year's race, courtesy ASI.)

The Rasmus show

Denmark’s Rasmus Henning edged out American James Cotter by three seconds in the swim with his 23:54 swim split. American Tom Eickelberg, who is a member of the swim and track and field teams at Adelphi University, found himself 1:32 down to the lead pair and third overall, followed closely by Germany’s Stephan Vuckovic.

Henning jumped on his bike and showed no signs of his mid-week, trans-Atlantic flight from Denmark and laid down a 2:07:11 bike split, biking 4:37 faster than USA’s Mike Caiazzo, who entered the transition in second, but was 7:55 behind the leader. Vuckovic and Cotter were well over ten minutes behind Henning as they entered T2 and it appeared that they would be left fighting for the last podium position during the run.

Caiazzo evenly matched Henning’s run pace over the 13.1-miles, but was only able to claw back a handful of seconds on Henning over the two-loop course. Henning, a two-time Olympian, was never under any pressure during the run broke the finish line tape in 3:53:41, showing he’s on track with his Kona build up. Caiazzo took second in 4:01:30 and Vuckovic rounded out the podium.

Professional men’s results

1

Henning, Rasmus

3:53:41

2

Caiazzo, Mike

4:01:30

3

Vuckovic, Stephan

4:06:36

4

Cotter, James

4:10:20

5

Bordine, Karl

4:12:02

6

Kelly, Ryan

4:17:56

7

Smith, Jack

4:24:50

8

Biboud, Julien

4:24:59

9

Botelho, Raymond

4:35:51

10

Eickelberg, Tom

4:42:03

The Chrissie show

As expected, in the women’s race, it was the Chrissie Wellington show again. The three-time Ironman World Champion recorded the race best swim, bike and run splits of the day on her way to her fourth consecutive win in New Hampshire at Ironman Timberman 70.3.

Wellington was able to snatch a one-seconded advantage over American Caitlin Snow as the lead pair crossed the timing mat at the end of the swim. That was as close as the women’s field would get Wellington through the rest of the day as she put her stamp on the race with her usual untouchable bike split. Wellington put together a 1:18:44 run split, which was 4:08 faster than eventual runner-up Snow (considered one of the faster runners in the sport). Annie Gervais completed the women’s podium.